DR President Fernandez Says: Zelaya and Lobo to Meet in Santo Domingo Next Week

The golpistas are saying that they have not received a petition from the Zelaya camp requesting safe passage to the DR.

As for President Fernandez’ invitation to Zelaya and Lobo, the US must be driving this. After the godawful fraud of an election, the US needs to cool things down in Honduras. Part of the cool down involves getting Zelaya the hell OUT of the Brazilian embassy and onto one of the many fine beaches in the DR. Let’s see what happens with the safe passage issue.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — The leader of the Dominican Republic said Friday that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will meet with his elected successor next week in this Caribbean nation.

There was no indication, however, that a deal for allowing such a meeting had been reached with the interim government that replaced Zelaya after a coup June 28.

Dominican President Leonel Fernandez told reporters that he expected Zelaya and President-elect Porfirio Lobo to meet Monday in Santo Domingo to talk about ways for resolving the political crisis that has gripped Honduras since Zelaya was deposed.

“As of Sunday and Monday, we will have both figures of the Honduran political world in the Dominican Republic,” Fernandez said, adding that Zelaya would arrive on Sunday and Lobo on Monday morning.

Fernandez told reporters he expected to meet with both men separately and then bring them together for discussions.

In Honduras’ capital, information minister Rene Zepeda said the interim government had not received a petition from Zelaya or from officials in the Dominican Republic asking that Zelaya be granted safe passage to leave the country.

Honduran officials and Zelaya have been at odds this week on terms of a deal that would let him emerge from the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa without fear of arrest on the charges of treason and abuse of power that led to his ouster. He has taken refuge in the embassy since sneaking back into Honduras on Sept. 21.

The government insists he must concede he is no longer president, although his term runs to Jan. 27. Zelaya says he won’t do that.

Zelaya also did not confirm that a meeting is set with Lobo.

He told The Associated Press only that he was grateful to Fernandez for seeking to arrange the meeting.

“We are thankful for President Fernandez’s gesture because it shows his intention to solve the Honduran crisis in an effort to benefit Central America. We are analyzing his proposal and we are in communication with President Fernandez,” Zelaya said.

There was no immediate comment from Lobo, who won the Nov. 29 presidential election that Honduras had scheduled before Zelaya was removed from office and sent out of the country at gunpoint. Lobo has said he supports granting amnesty both to Zelaya and to all of those involved in the coup.